


Does It Spark Joy?

by Angel Ascending (angel_in_ink)



Series: Beau Week 2019 [4]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, How Do I Want To Tag This?, Keepsakes and Memories, Reminiscing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 20:20:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18630583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel_in_ink/pseuds/Angel%20Ascending
Summary: “Wow, Beau, that’s a lot of stuff.”Beau eyed all the things she had dumped out of her pack, clothes and books and trinkets all mixed together, and sighed.





	Does It Spark Joy?

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day 7 of Beau Week 2019: Keepsakes

“Wow, Beau, that’s a lot of stuff.”

Beau eyed all the things she had dumped out of her pack, clothes and books and trinkets all mixed together, and sighed. “Yeah. I need a fancy magic bag like yours, Jess. Except not pink. Not that pink is bad!” She said quickly.

Jester giggled, the light of the campfire dancing off her skin. “Oh I know that. Pink is the best color and all, but blue is nice too! Maybe we could find you a blue haversack somewhere.”

“That’d be awesome,” Beau agreed as she started folding her clothes and putting them in a pile. “I’ve been meaning to clean this thing out for ages, it gets so heavy sometimes.” She moved on to the assorted stuff scattered on the ground, sorting her notebooks into a pile, followed by a few books she had picked up just for fun, or that Jester had loaned her. One, a copy of “The Librarian’s Assistant,” she set aside for Caleb. You wouldn’t think there would be any way to make smut centered around a library interesting, but she had been pleasantly surprised. If the Cobalt Soul Archives had been like that, well, she still would have left, but shelving books would have been _way_ more exciting.

Beau hefted “The Courting of The Crick,” in her hand and considered it. It was a heavy book, mediocre as far as smut went and wildly inaccurate in terms of Xhorhasian history, as it turned out. She didn’t want it anymore, and she knew Caleb had already read it, and Jester had flipped through it looking for “the good parts,” and had pronounced it boring. Still, it made her think of the Chastity’s Nook back in Zadash, of giggling over outrageous smut titles, of a fall day and the smell of fresh bread from the bakery nearby, Jester on one side of her and Caleb on the other. In the end she put the book with the rest of her books in a pile.

She was surprised to find that she still had a healer’s kit on her, she had forgotten about it completely. Had that been one of the ones she had bought back in Trostenwald? Gods, that felt like an entire lifetime ago. The same went for the brewer’s kit, which she realized she had never once used. She remembered, vaguely, that she had thought about brewing ale to make ends meet, after she had run away from Zadash, maybe even starting her own brewery someday. The notion seemed a little ridiculous now, but the kit still had uses. Now that she remembered she had it, maybe she could brew something for her friends. She put the brewer’s kit next to the healer’s kit.

A spool of jewelry wire caught her attention next, shining in the firelight, next to a small pair of pliers and a little bag of interesting beads she had picked up in Zadash while shopping with Jester. Her parents had tried to harness her restless hands and bring her around to an “respectable hobby for a young woman,” for all the good that had done them. She only carried around wire and pliers now because they were both things that had multiple uses. Still, the beads reminded her of a sketch in one of her notebooks, an idea for a necklace. She put the wire and pliers next to the brewer’s kit and put the pouch of beads in its own pile, where it was joined by a length of leather cord and a few small shells she had collected from the beach in Nicodranas and from the Isle of Bisaft. All she needed was…

“Feathers,” Beau muttered to herself. “Where did I put the damn feathers?” She wouldn’t have just thrown them in her bag to get ruined. She would have put them in something. She started flipping through notebooks, relieved when her search turned up the red feather Nila had given her, along with a few of Kiri’s shed feathers and a couple of brown feathers from Professor Thaddeus. She folded a spare piece of parchment into an envelope and tucked the feathers inside, placing them with the cord and beads and shells.

The silk flower caught her eye as she gathered up some of her loose papers, the bright petals reminiscent of the fireworks that had graced the sky over Hupperdook. Her memories of the place were bittersweet. Life had seemed easier then, killer clockwork wardens notwithstanding. She had been happy. She had thought nothing could touch them, not if they were all together. The petals were a bit squashed, which was no surprise, but she smoothed them out the best she could and tucked the flower behind her ear for safekeeping for the moment.

Some of the paper she held in her hands was blank, having fallen out of one notebook or another, knocked loose from their binding at some point in their journeys. Those she placed back into one of her notebooks. One piece of paper, ink smudged and tobacco stained, Beau didn’t have to unfold to remember what it was. She ran her fingers over it, smiling fondly. She had never gotten a thank you note from someone she had had sex with before. She wondered how Keg was doing. Maybe… maybe she could ask Jester to send her a message. Just a “Hey, what’s up? How you’ve been?” sort of thing.

The next paper was not the best quality, it had gone ragged at the edges and almost tore along its cease lines when Beau unfolded it.

_Come See The Fletching and Moondrop’s Traveling Carnival of Curiosities!_ The faded ink proclaimed. _Magic! Mystery! A Night You’ll Never Forget! Only 5 Coppers A Show!_

“A night you’ll never forget,” Beau murmured, looking down at the flier. She folded it gently, careful not to tear it, until it was small enough to fit into the pouch on her belt that held Molly’s cards. It slid in easily, as if it belonged there.

The last piece of paper was folded and creased as well, but the paper itself was of the highest quality, the creases so sharp she could cut herself on them if she wasn’t careful. When she unfolded it, the ink was just as dark as the day it had been penned, every stroke precise.

_Beauregard, I write to inform you that your mother has given birth to a son._

There was more to the letter, which read like a dissolution of a bad business contract, but Beau didn’t read any further than the first line. She had long since memorized the rest, the lines creeping into her head when she was trying to sleep.

_I feel as if it’s in everyone’s best interest if you severed all contact with us._

Beau looked up from the letter.Around her, the rest of the Nein were doing their own things around the fire, worn out after a long day of travel. Jester had gone back to sketching in her journal, while Yasha and Caduceus were sharing a cup of tea nearby. Nott had decided that now was an excellent time to brew some more acid, and Fjord was watching her, either with actual interest or in the hope that he could prevent Nott from accidentally dissolving something important. Caleb was reading, because when did he ever stop, Frumpkin curled around his neck.

_Do not attempt to disrupt our life any more than you already have._

Beau carefully put her things back in her bag, clothes and notebooks and keepsakes, until all that was left was the letter in her hand and one book, which she picked up off the ground.

_I claim no further responsibility for you._

Beau walked across the campsite, letting the letter fall from her hand and into the fire as she passed it. “Hey Caleb! I have a book for you to borrow!”

************

The next morning on the road, Jester poked at Beau’s bag as she walked. “Beau, you spent like, a whole hour last night cleaning out your bag and it doesn’t look any less full.”

Beau looked over her shoulder at Jester and smiled. “Maybe not, but it feels a hell of a lot lighter.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm angel-ascending on Tumblr and angel_in_ink on Twitter if y'all want to stop by and say hi!


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